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Training in “the Cold” in Southern California

I baled on the snow and headed out to Southern California a couple days ago. The driving to the airport was slow and treacherous after 14 inches.

I got to San Diego late Wednesday afternoon, just time time to talk to Lance for an hour and then go for a couple hour ride.

On Thursday, I did a little lap of North County. I was hoping to meet up with Gary Hanson, is the in charge of WIRED. Wired stands for – Warrior: Integrating Reconditioning Educating Developing. It’s a program to help wounded and ill service men recover through athletics. I was riding around North County, hoping Gary would show, but ended up getting caught in a storm and had to ride 30 miles back to La Jolla in the rain at 45 degrees. Turns out a new Regiment came back and it was a “circus, non stop”. He seemss like a busy guy.

Last night I got a call from my friend Ann, who lives in Austin. She is out in San Diego for a pathology deal. She didn’t have anything to do so we drove down to San Diego and picked her up and brought her back to La Jolla for dinner. It was cool hooking up with her outside of the city of Austin.

This morning I’m in kind of a rush. I have to be riding in 10 minutes to head to North County for the Swami’s ride. It starts up in Encinitas, which is an hour north at least. I called my old team mate, Thurlow Rogers, and he’s going to do it too, so I thought why not. I’m in pitiful form, but it is always way easier riding 100 miles with a group than on my own.

I heard someone talking in a Starbucks about how unusually cold it is and they can “stand” it for a little while. I was listening to this when I was riding in short sleeve and shorts at 62 degrees. Some people out here sure have a warped perspective on what cold is.

Okay, I need to get going.

My bike leaving Kansas City.

I really like the view from an airplane. I look out the window a ton when I fly.

I thought this was a pretty cool photo from landing in San Diego.

I realized that I was probably going to get wet when I looked at my phone and saw this.

We don’t have these around Kansas.

Sue and Ann at dinner last night. Notice the olive tree inside the restaurant behind them.

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5 thoughts on “Training in “the Cold” in Southern California”

They say it’s due to the bodies reaction and adaptation to a given climate that makes people think 62 is cold. They’re used to 80 and 90 degree temps, so 62 is like our 42. We’re now used to 10-20 degrees so 62 feels like 80. That being said I overheard a gal in Morgan Hill last May say she couldn’t wait for summer and was sick of the cold. It was 70 degrees at 9am in the morning…

Those Californians better start praying for a lot of moisture. It’s a grim outlook for fire season and they will be complaining about the smoke and water restrictions. I am praying for them because I really don’t like going down there for fires.

At this point I am not sure I could carry enough water for 62 degrees.

“It can take millions of gallons of fresh water to frack a single well, and much of the drilling is tightly concentrated in areas where water is in chronically short supply, or where there have been multi-year droughts. In California, where a drought emergency was declared last month, 96% of new oil and gas wells were located in areas where there was already fierce competition for water. The pattern holds for other regions caught up in the oil and gas rush. Most of the wells in New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming were also located in areas of high water stress, the report said.” http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/07/diary-of-a-dying-country/

You know, you don’t have to talk to the guy. He doesn’t own you. If anything, you’re the one still standing with a solid reputation. The guy should show you some props, as you were an elder statesman of American cycling even before he got famous.